Stephanie Bruno ’11

Financial Literacy, With Flair

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Bruno.

The daughter of a financial planner, Stephanie Bruno ’11 had a childhood peppered with lessons on budgeting and setting financial goals—lessons that were not always welcomed, says Bruno, who has a self-professed aversion to numbers.

Bruno, a media studies major, immersed herself in journalism and social media while at the University of San Francisco—but it was in collaboration with her mother that an unexpected career path started to take shape.

Her mother wanted to create an evening financial literacy class for women, whom she noticed often lacked the knowledge to take charge of their financial health. With Bruno’s media savvy, however, the two women realized they could reach a wider audience.

Six months after Bruno’s graduation, the two launched DivaCFO, a blog disseminating important information on personal finance, specially tailored to women. Written by Bruno with input from her mother, its posts run the gamut from the heavy (“How to Talk to Your Elderly Parents About Their Finances”) to the practical (“Tricks to Reduce Your Spending”) to the more light-hearted (“The Price of a Puppy”). Still in its infancy, the blog is already winning over readers with its accessible style.

“I make it clear that I’m navigating this just like our readers. I can definitely relate to the people that might come to our blog and be looking for an answer,” Bruno said.

From her home in Austin, Texas, Bruno is working on expanding DivaCFO’s reach, collaborating with a developer to create an iPhone app—which would send users on a scavenger hunt for vital financial documents—and doing her part to impart the DivaCFO message: “Be prepared, not scared.”